Healing fund still uncertain

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It has been reported that the government of Canada is about to set aside a healing fund as a kind of restitution for the abuse suffered by Aboriginal students at residential schools.

The fund, it has been rumored, will total between $200 million to $350 million, depending on who a reporter speaks to. Along with this fund, it is said, that a "statement of reconciliation" will be announced indicating Canada's new relationship with its Aboriginal people.

Jane Stewart, the minister of Indian Affairs, has repeatedly declared that there would be no formal apology from the federal government concerning its role in the residential school system. According to Lynn Boyer, a spokesperson for Indian Affairs, any talk of a statement of reconciliation is "premature."

"Whatever is coming out [in the media] is still speculation at this stage," she said.

This statement of reconciliation is supposed to be Canada's first response to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples report that was tabled in November 1996. The report had made many recommendations, one of which was an official apology for the residential schools and the abuse that many Aboriginal students suffered in them.

"The federal government has been reviewing the RCAP report since it was released," said Boyer. "We've been looking at the issue of residential schools as part of that review. The minister is saying we have to look at all of the aspects [of the report] and determine how best to respond to it."

Stewart has been in contact with various Aboriginal organizations, trying to determine the best response to the report. Harry Daniels, the president of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, and Gerald Morin, the president of the Métis National Council, met with Stewart on Dec. 16.

"We just went in there with our concerns as to what the response to the RCAP would be like, how inclusive it would be, and how strong a statement they were going to make," said Daniels. "We wanted to make sure that all Aboriginal people were included in the response."

Daniels is most concerned that any healing fund set up would also provide money for off-reserve and non-status Indians, as well as Métis, Inuit and Indians who were not a party to a treaty signing.

Spokesmen for the Assembly of First Nations and the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations are not taking the reports in Canada's newspapers seriously.

"These are all rumors," said Jean LaRose, spokesman for the AFN. "We hope the response will be good . . . but we're going to see what comes from the government before we respond."

He did say that Phil Fontaine, the chief of the assembly, did make his concerns known to Stewart, particularly his desire for an official apology for the residential schools.

Lloyd Martell, a spokesman for the federation, echoed the same wait-and-see approach.

"We don't want to make any sort of official statement based on what we know now because it might change," he said.

Morin stated that he has heard that Fontaine has been negotiating directly with Stewart regarding the healing fund. This concerned him because it might indicate that the healing fund will favor the AFN's constituency, on-reserve Indians, and neglect the other Aboriginal groups.

"It doesn't appear that the federal government is offering too much to Métis people as far as its response is concerned," said Morin. "The government tends to focus its initiatives to First Nations on-reserve people and we're afraid that we're going to be left out again."

Morin warned that if the Métis people were unable to seek recourse through negotiations with the federal government, they'd probably intensify they're court actions.

"We'd have no other alternative," said Morin.

It has been mentioned that the federal government will provide its response to the RCAP report in early January.